Staebell, Francis J.

Jesuit Father Francis J. Staebell, aged 94, died on Feb. 8, 2013, at Murray-Weigel Hall, Bronx, N.Y. Fr. Staebell was born on Oct. 11, 1918, and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Aug. 14, 1937.

Fr. Staebell was ordained to the priesthood in 1950 and taught for several years in high schools in the Bronx and Rochester, N.Y., prior to becoming a missionary priest in 1964.

Fr. Staebell served as a missionary in Majuro in the Marshall Islands from 1964 to 1967 and then in Ebeye, also in the Marshall Islands, from 1967 to 1978, including a year as superior. He also was superior in Majuro from 1978 to 1980, when he became pastor of a parish there.

In 1981, Fr. Staebell returned to Buffalo as chaplain at Mercy Hospital, and in 2001 he was named assistant pastor of St. Michael Church in Buffalo, N.Y.

Fr. Staebell was followed into the priesthood by his younger brother, James, who was ordained as a Buffalo diocesan priest in 1957. James Staebell died in 2008. Survivors include two sisters, Alice Smith and Dorothy Pack.